Ghosts of the past
by Aristania
Summary: A CCS ghost story. Sakura goes insane and destroys Clow's creations. Several years later, Eriol finds them and finally brings everyone back.


This is kind of like a CCS ghost story. Eriol will look to be in his early thirties and Nakuru is his assistant. He's a mythology professor but he's helping his friend John- who is a ghost hunter that knows about magic and Clow Reed- figure out why people are being scared away from a certain house, twice a year, every year. Here it is, enjoy.

"Get out! Get out!" A disembodied voice screamed at the woman as she ran from an ancient house that was not her own. Snow falling around her feet, despite it being the middle of summer, the woman ran as fast as she could to the far end of the lot. Away from the screaming baritone, away from the patter of bare feet, and away from the eerily beautiful 'woman' in the mirror.

-With John and Eriol-

"And that's what she said happened." Said John to Eriol. "Hmmm..." Eriol murmered. "What did she say the house looked like again?" Asked Eriol unfazed by the bone chilling tale. "She said it was a big victorian house with brick walls, cherry wood panneling on the walls, and the phrase 'magica est immortalis' etched over the door." "But that house hasn't existed for centuries!" Yelled Eriol exasperately. "That was your past life's house right?" Asked John. Eriol nodded his head solomnely. "I find it quite odd that a sunny little house on the former grounds of Reed mannor could change so rapidly into the towering monster itself." Said Eriol quite firmly. "And on the anniversary of THEIR murder too..." Nakuru mused thoughtfully from her post beside Eriol's chair. "Who?" Asked John. "Clow Reed created two creatures to guard his deck of cards. Fifteen years ago, the new mistress they had chosen to command them went insane with power and destroyed all of Clow's creations before taking her own life and the life of her brother, father, beloved, and cousin." Said Eriol quietly while his guardians looked at him woriedly. "Well, I'm sorry to hear that my friend; but I think we may have found the dead creatures' woman also reported glancing in the upstairs mirror of a white, bamboo vanity. Through it, she said that she saw a 'woman' with long white hair and pale eyes. She thought it was a demon at first. She said that 'she' started singing but the voice was male." Said John. Eriol had bolted from his chair by now and was begging to go with John to investigate. They arrived at the house right before sundown and to the four's- John, Eriol, Nakuru, and Spinnel Sun- dissapointment, all they found was a vacant lot.

"Wait." Said Spinnel, stopping the other three from walking away in defeat. "I think there's a barrier up. I can vaguely sense Cerberus here." Eriol perked up at that and started walking onto the lawn, feeling some resistance, but suceeding none the less. Once Eriol was in, he held open the barrier for the others to enter. When everyone was in, they started heading to the house, mindful of the snow that had appeared as they entered. Getting closer to the imposing estate, the wind started to blow harder, blowing away snow to reveal the frozen bones of dead humans. The ice on the windows also started to show carved messages. Some saying, 'get out!' others saying, 'leave or be trapped for eternity!' This unnerved the team a bit but they kept going until they had reached the front steps of the house. "Why do you not heed the warnings? Worthless brats, the lot of you." Spoke an eerily familiar voice.

"Cerberus!" Eriol screamed, having seen the beast on the roof of the house. Suddenly, the beast appeared before them saying, "You should not be here. If you are not gone by morning, you will stay for eternity." And as he said this, his coat started becoming ratty and sinking in on itself before his body completely turned to dust and he once again became a disembodied voice in the air. "Leave before it's too late!" "No! Don't go!" Eriol was shouting in frustration and horror as another being appeared from within the mansion clad only in a dressing gown. "Why do you stay? In this endless winter where only the dead dwell?" Asked Yue softly as he stepped from the house, his skin a pale grey hue and his lips as blue as his eyes. "Yue..." Eriol choked on his sentence. "You must leave." Said Yue again. "So..." Said John. "You've been scarring off the home owners over the years." "Yes." Yue answered emotionlessly.

"This house is a graveyard for the magically dead. Those bones, they are of humans who did not listen. There is a very powerful spell here. Any human that enters must leave before sunrise of the following day or they will forever be trapped in transition. Still alive but mostly dead." "But why does something from the plane of the dead appear on the plane of the living?" Asked John, obviously confused. "This house used Clow-sama's lingering magic to create a mind of it's own. It did not want people to forget his legacy, and since it had been torn down, it chose two dates to reappear. The day of Clow's death, hence the snow, and the day mine and Cerberus' earth bound forms were destroyed." Eriol and John nodded their heads to show that they understood. "Eriol, Cerberus is back." Said Spinnel. "It is time for you to leave now. Dawn is fast approaching on the mortal plane." Said Cerberus. "But..." "No buts Eriol." Stated Yue firmly. "We will meet again, someday." Said Cerberus. Eriol felt tears start streaming down his face as he looked into the smiling faces of the guardians. "You don't deserve to be here, not in this everlasting cold, reliving the worst days of your lives." Whispered Eriol brokenly. "Then set us free." Said Yue. "Rebuild the house, give the ancient strucure some peace of mind. Then when that is done, summon us and we will be reborn." Eriol smiled at the face of Clow's angel. "I will." He answered truthfully. "Now go." THe guardians urged as Eriol and his party were pushed from the barrier just as the sun rose. And through the shimmering fibers of the fading barrier, Eriol could see them. All of Clow's creatures had gathered, and they were all waving him off and smiling happily. On the way to leave, Eriol caught something shining out of the corner of his eye. The glimmering light was made by the sun reflecting off of Yue and Cerberus' clasps. PIcking up the items. Eriol walked away to start on his next project.

-five years later-

Eriol, now closer to fourty, was standing outside the newly finished house. He had removed the house that had been on the lot and replaced it with the new Reed mannor. Eriol and his guardians had worked painstakingly hard to make everything perfect. Everything was the same, down to the last old fashion writing quill and ink well. Finally satisfied, Eriol brought the former Sakura book full of blank cards and the clasps he had recovered into the study. Then, with a few commands the spell set to work and before his very eyes, the house was alight with life. "I told you, you could do it." Was the last thing Eriol heard before falling into the darkness of exhausted slumber, a contented smile on his face as his eyes finally caught the beautiful face of his new moon guardian.

And I think that I'll leave it there.


End file.
